Group Projects

The Hidden

Short Documentary Film

The team behind this project:

How can people lose their home? How could families lose the safe haven of an apartment? How could this happen in the EU without anybody noticing it or even protest?

FutureLab Europe participants Christoph Janosch Delcker (Director) and Marian Cramers (Executive Producer) looked closely. Their short documentary film ‘The Hidden’ describes the widely unknown social phenomenon, so-called ‘hidden homelessness’: people who have a roof over their head, but no home of their own. These are people who are forced to sleep at their partners’ or friends’ places, in squats, or in temporary housing solutions.

The documentary reconstructs the stories of four people affected by hidden homelessness: Aisha in Birmingham, UK, Dan in London, UK, Dagmar in Erlangen, Germany, and Biggy in Cologne, Germany. Their individual stories are testimonies, and an alarming indicator for societal changes going on in the presumably rich countries Germany and the United Kingdom, unnoticed by mainstream media; a growing difference between the rich and poor in two societies that become less and less permeable.

“People approach me and tell me that they recognize the phenomenon from the film in the world around them. Hidden homelessness is no petty affair, it’s not just a few people staying temporarily with their friends. It’s the story of people who lose everything that matters to them; people who lose their home. The spread of the phenomenon is an alarming indicator for growing social indifference in the core of Europe. It’s about time for society and politicians to recognize this.”

From the behind the scenes reflections of Christoph Janosch Delcker, Director